Legalising Documents from Singapore for Qatar

Most Singaporean documents will need to go through an initial stage of certification. Typically this is the process whereby a Notary Public makes a certified and notarised copy of the original document, the notarised copy being the document that the attestation is processed on. Certain other documents may require verification from another government body. This step in the process is not however needed in the case of government-issued documents such as birth, marriage or death certificates.

Most documents will need to be certified by the Deputy Director at the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) before being presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this stage, the seal (in the case of government-issued documents) or signature of the person that certified the document is checked for its validity. Once completed, the SAL will add a red certification seal to the document.

Once the document has been certified by the Singapore Academy of Law, it can be presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for the application of an Apostille sticker. An Apostille is an international standard document that confirms to other countries that the attached document has been correctly validated in the originating country.

The final step in Singapore is to have the document stamped, known as attested, by the Qatar Embassy in Singapore. During this stage an official Qatar-government sticker and seal is applied to the document. This confirms to the authorities in Qatar that the document has completed all the required steps in Singapore.

Once the document has reached Qatar, it requires a further legalisation stamp by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar which validates that your document has been processed correctly in Singapore. Some employers make arrangements to handle this for you, so you should check whether this needs completing by you or not.

In certain circumstances, your document may also require translation into Arabic. Again, your employer may handle this for you so best to check. If required, the whole document and its relevant stamps are translated from English into Arabic by a recognised certified translator. Once the translation has been done, then everything has been completed to make it fully useable within the UAE.